by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright December 12, 2007
All Rights Reserved.

tumbling in Iowa, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) got off the high road, hitting front-runner Sen. Barack Obama (D-Il.) below the belt, exposing his past drug use. Barack revealed his past experimentation with marijuana and cocaine in his 1995 autobiography “Dreams From My Father” in which he openly shares events and forces that shaped his young life before running for the U.S. senate in 2004. With only three weeks until the Iowa caucuses, the mud has begun to fly. Bill Shaheen, co-chairman of Hillary's front-runner campaign, raised the issues of Barack's past drug abuse in the Washington Post. Though dismissed by the Clinton campaign as “unauthorized,” Shaheen hoped to derail momentum that vaulted Barack into the lead in Iowa. Hillary's shenanigans at a town-hall meeting Nov. 10 and Nov. 29 Republican CNN YouTube debate caused the reversal of fortunes.

      After planting a question Nov. 10 at a town-hall meeting in Sioux City Iowa, Hillary promised such chicanery would not happen again. Yet 19 days later, Hillary blindsided CNN's Anderson Cooper at the YouTube Republican debate, planting self-declared retired gay Gen. Keith H. Kerr, to embarrass Republican candidates about their positions on the Pentagon's “don't ask, don't tell” policy. Since then, Hillary's numbers have been dropping like a rock, now spotting Obama a 10% lead. Dredging up Obama's past drug use is a cheap shot, considering her husband was asked similar questions in the 1992 campaign. “When I was in England,” said then candidate Bill Clinton, “I experimented with marijuana a time or two, and didn't like it. I didn't inhale and I didn't try it again,” displaying the kind of spin and dishonesty that became a hallmark of his presidency.

      Clinton studied at Oxford as a Rhodes scholar from 1986 to 1970, the height of the Flower-Child, Hippy era, where marijuana use was rampant. Even current right wing U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas admitted to smoking pot while attending Yale Law School in the early ‘70s. No one could be more disingenuous than Bill Clinton saying he didn't like pot but insisting he didn't inhale. How can you not like something that you've never experienced? Neither Bill Clinton nor President George W. Bush ever came clean about their past drug and alcohol abuse. Rumors swirled about the current president abusing alcohol and using cocaine. At least Obama set the record straight in his autobiography. When Hillary campaign official Shaheen raised Obama's past drug use with the Washington Post, it was the campaign's attempt to derail Barack's surge before the Jan. 3 caucuses.

      Shaheen, husband to former New Hampshire Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, raised concerns that Obama's background was largely unknown and that the GOP would savage him in the general election. “It'll be, ‘when was the last time? Did you ever give drugs to anyone? Did you ever sell them to anyone?'” asked Shaheen, impeaching Obama's credibility. “There are so many openings for Republican dirty tricks. It's hard to overcome,” said Shaheen, making the case that Hillary would be a safer bet in 2008. He mentioned nothing about Hillary's past “File-gate,” “Travel-gate” and Whitewater controversies, not to mention her failed health care program while First Lady. So far, the only one engaged in “dirty tricks” has been the Hillary campaign, which, over the summer, circulated rumors that Barack attended a “madrassa” elementary school [1967-71] in Jakarta, Indonesia.

      Catching flack, Hillary's campaign disavowed any connection with Shaheen's comments, a classic denial, while allowing surrogates to do the dirty work. “Senator Clinton is out every day talking about the issues that matter to the American people. These comments were not authorized or condoned by the campaign in any way,” said spokeswoman Kathleen Strand. Instead of condemning Shaheen's Remarks, Strand only said they weren't “authorized or condoned.” Today's campaigns rarely have candidates slinging the mud. Yet Hillary was quick to accuse Barack and former Sen. John Edwards of “mudslinging” for questioning her on key campaign issues, including whether she supported a timetable to withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq. That's considered “mudslinging” but circulating rumors about Obama's drug use or early-life radical Muslim education is fair game.

      Freud enlightened us about one of humanity's worst traits—projecting onto others what we despise in ourselves. When Hillary accused Barack and Edwards of “mudslinging,” she was the one guilty of casting aspersions through cleverly disguised surrogates. Camouflaged leaks about Obama's “Muslim” past and now dredging up his past drug abuse, Hillary takes throwing mud to new lows. Her spectacular fall from grace in Iowa is linked to at least two incidents of planting confederates and a campaign turned sour. “This is not the time to go back to the same old politics of, ‘now I'm going to smack you over the head with a baseball bat and call into question your character,'” said Obama campaign co-chair Ned Helms. So far, Obama's positive energy has neutralized Hillary's attacks, continuing to make the two-term New York senator look negative and desperate.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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